Airbag Deployment

I took one of my most favoritest books with me on Fall Break, Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. There's a section in it that I am going to potentially break copyright laws here (although I maintain this is an excerpt that should be counted as fair use, since I am not portraying this as my own work) to reproduce, because it applies to me rather muchly. So, read the other stories if you haven't, and consider this a bonus post.

Randy: "[Men's] social deficiencies, lack of perspective, or whatever you want to call it, is what enables us to study one species of dragonfly for twenty years, or sit in front of a computer for a hundred hours a week writing code. This is not the behavior of a well-balanced and healthy person, but it can obviously lead to great advances in synthetic fibers. Or whatever."

Amy: "But you said that you were not very focused."

"Compared to other men in my family, that's true. So, I know a little about astronomy, a lot about computers, a little about business, and I have, if I may say so, a slightly higher level of social functioning than the others. Or maybe it's not even functioning just an acute awareness of when I'm not functioning, so that I at least know when to feel embarrassed."

Amy laughs. "You're definitely good at that. It seems like you sort of lurch from one moment of feeling embarrassed to the next."

Randy gets embarrassed.

"It's fun to watch," Amy says encouragingly. "It speaks well of you."